body which in the Platonical opinion is but a Prison in the Apostolical is a Temple when it is in Christ When our Lord possesses and governs it he elevates the condition of this vile body even while it is upon the earth He makes it a place where God dwells where God is worshipped and glorified where God appears and manifests himself What a strong invitation is this to all that believe to turn from every evil way and to be holy as he that hath called us is holy in all manner of conversation Whereby they will be turned into such beautiful and glorious Tabernacles as to become the habitation of God through the Spirit 4. And what can more powerfully move us than all these considerations to be stedfast and unmoveable in the work of the Lord if any temptation assault us and begin to shake the constancy of our Christian resolution The Apostle might well beseech us to stand fast as a body doth that is firmly seated upon a good basis and foundation for we know saith he that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. As we know that the temptations which flatter us are very inviting to our fleshly appetites as we feel the allurements of the pleasures and advantages of this world so we know if we be believers that there are infinitely better things to counter-ballance and weigh down the fairest of all the temptations which sollicite us We are assured if we keep our station and preserve our selves holy and undefiled that we have a building with God that is unmoveable and cannot be shaken Let us keep our selves therefore in our seat let us not be moved by any of the enticements of the world nor by any shock which violent hands may give us for we are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets who were sent by the will of God according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus Ephes 2. 20. 2 Tim. 1. 1. Our hope stands fast let us do so too and building up our selves in our most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost keep our selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Jude 20 21. There are but these three things my beloved to be done for the attaining of this heavenly condition First Strongly to believe that there is such an happy state Secondly To believe that they only shall enjoy it who love God and live in obedience to the Gospel of Christ And Thirdly To be led by this faith and act according to the necessary direction of it Now how easie is that when we have convinced our selves thoroughly of the two former All the difficulty and labour is to believe seriously and stedfastly to perswade our selves of the truth of those things which God hath prepared for those that love him When they are become sensible to us and we look constantly for the mercy of our Lord unto eternal life we cannot chuse but endeavour to attain them more than the best condition that this world affords And when we see that they cannot be possessed without an holy life what should hinder us from having our fruit unto holiness whose end is everlasting life It is manifest that as the nature of man is formed to chuse that which is deemed good and to leave and eschew that which is apprehended to be evil so it is made to preferr a great good before a little and to abandon a trifling enjoyment if by that means we may escape a sore mischief and gain a more noble and illustrious happiness Now it is no less apparent that a Royal Pallace is more desirable in all mens eyes than a little hovel of Turf and Straw an everlasting building that will need no repairs nor ever fall to the ground to be chosen before a tottering frame which every gust of wind shakes and must shortly tumble into the dust upon which it stands What is the matter then that men preferr the condition of a Beggar before that of a Prince That they set their hearts upon that which is built upon a dung-hill before that whose foundations are in Heaven and stands upon the immutable Promise and Power of God I mean that the pleasures and enjoyments of this life gain an higher esteem in their thoughts than the delitious joyes of the world to come And the dull entertainments of this body are advanced and lifted up to an higher place in their affections than all the entertainments of the soul yea and those which God hath provided for the body it self if we would manage and order all its desires according to his holy will There can no cause be assigned of this preposterous choice but only this that they feel these present things but have no feeling of those that are to come They let sense prevail above faith and what here addresses it self to them they receive with a greater affection than they do the reports of those heavenly things which our Saviour hath brought to light by his Gospel They taste the pleasures of meat and drink and all the enjoyments of a fleshly Nature but have little or no rellish at all of those delights which are spiritual for the hope of which our Lord and his Apostles despised the other as not worthy to be compared with the pleasures that are at Gods right hand for evermore They feel this Body wherein they now are and though it be heavy and burdensome in some conditions of life yet it is better a great deal than none at all And such the heavenly building seems to be because our souls are not united to it and have no sense of it but look upon it as a thing that is not and never shall be bestowed on them We must perswade our selves then of the reality and certainty of the state which is to come we must labour to touch it and live in a constant sense and expectation of it By faith we must bring our minds to some such union and conjunction with that house not made with hands as they have with this tabernacle wherein they now inhabit We must let our thoughts as they say dwell upon it for though a thing be never so certain in it self yet if we do not apprehend it so to be it will no more move us than if it were not at all And according as the reasons and motives that we have of faith are little or great so will our perswasisions be weak and feeble or strong and powerfull If we would have our Faith then do any thing worthy of the Gospel and produce any good effects in our hearts we must firmly lay the grounds of it and keep them alwayes visible naked and bare to our eye and we must often look upon them and diligently consider them else all that we build upon it will shake and waver and be apt upon every temptation to be overthrown That is we must constantly represent to our selves the Lord Jesus as
and liberty joy and pleasure constancy and settlement than our present condition affords It was a matter of certainty which they made no scruple to assert It was not a probable opinion but an undoubted conclusion There were sound Arguments which led them to this strong perswasion necessary causes which made them of this unmovable belief What they were must be our enquiry at this time And upon due examination I make no question we shall find that their judgement was setled upon substantial Reasons and that they did not pretend to a knowledge without such solid grounds as were able to sustain so great a confidence as they express in all their writings and actions 1. For they knew that Jesus their Master who made discovery of these things to them had certain knowledge of them himself and could not deceive them They knew I mean that he came out from God that he descended from Heaven to lay open that place and shew us what God hath provided there for those that love him This was very effectual to perswade them of a building of God because one that came from God assured them of it and they doubted not of an house in the Heavens because they were told it by one that had been there himself and knew very well the state of that Heavenly Countrey which he described He was not like to many idle persons who draw Mapps of such Territories as they never saw wherein they paint Chimaera's and whatsoever extravagant fancies come into their minds but he was acknowledged by more than themselves to be a Teacher that came from God and therefore acquainted with the glory of the other world and the happy condition which God intends for souls there This he set before their eyes to their great satisfaction both because the heavenly Countrey was described by him that had been in it and which is more by him that was the owner and possessor of it How could they refuse to surrender their belief to such a person To him that came down from Heaven even the Son of man who is in Heaven John 3. 13. That which our Saviour saith to Nicodemus in that place V. 11. was their assurance in all cases Verily verily I say unto thee we speak that we do know and testifie that we have seen This he told them over and over again that he had seen the Father that he was the living bread which came down from Heaven and that thither he should ascend up where he was before John 6. 46 51 62. and divers other places Nor did he only say it but he proved it too by doing such things as none could do but one that had the power of Heaven Which made Nicodemus say John 3. 2. We know that thou art a Teacher come from God for no man can do these Miracles that thou dost except God be with him And the blind man also concludes John 9. 32 33. That if he were not of God he could not have done such a thing as was never heard of since the world began These and such like wonders made the Apostles cry out We believe and are sure that thou art Christ the Son of the living God Joh. 6. 69. We know that the Son of God is come and hath given us understanding that we may know him that is true This is the true God and eternal life 1 John 5. 20. And the certainty of this made them sure of all the rest For why should they question the words of such a Master Why should they make any doubt of that which was averred by one of such credit If they questioned any thing it must be whether he came from Heaven or no. But this being granted they might very well say they knew they had a building of God eternal there Now of that they had assurance by Voices from Heaven by Miraculous Works by his Resurrection from the dead and by the Holy Ghost sent down from thence Before which coming of the Holy Ghost they were confident of this and therefore much more after they had received it For that our Saviour testified of them in his Prayer to the Father before his departure John 17. 8. I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee and have believed that thou didst send me II. They knew likewise that this person who could not but speak the truth had promised to purified souls that they should see God It is one of the first encouragements that he gave to them in his Sermon on the Mount Matth. 5. 8. to become his followers From whence they could not but plainly discern not only that there is a felicity hereafter for holy men but that it is so exceeding great and glorious that we must be very much heightned and inlarged in all our faculties before we can be capable to enjoy it We must be strangely changed they knew both in soul and body neither of which he promised should perish before we can be rendred fit for conversation with the Most High and Holy One the blessed and only Potentate who only hath immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see For in this body we cannot bear the sight of an Angel in his brightness The lustre of one of those coelestial creatures dazzles the eyes of flesh and made men anciently think they should exspire presently when they were admitted to their company The reason of which perhaps was that they concluded this earthly state in this corruptible body was not strong enough to endure such manifestations from above How can we behold then the Glory of God unless we be made over again and moulded into a new shape How can we be able to look upon the Splendor of the Divine Majesty unless all our powers be mightily raised widened and fortified beyond the highest of our present conceptions We must shine forth as the Sun according to our Saviours Promise Matth. 13. 43. in the Kingdom of the Father That transforming sight of God which the Apostle speaks of which shall so alter our souls as to render us like unto him must be in an habitation where we shall be capable to know more of him and look longer and more stedfastly upon him than we can in this dark and narrow dwelling For though it doth not fully appear what we shall be yet thus much we know saith St. John 1 Epist 3. 2. that when he shall appear we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is III. Of this change they saw an instance in our Lord himself Whose very body as soon as he was raised from the grave was so clarified and refined that they could not but be sensible of a marvellous transmutation to be made in themselves and of a better dwelling which their souls should one day have Especially since his Resurrection also was the great thing to
designs and labours They slighted and trod upon all other things in compare with this which they valued infinitely above all the contentments and satisfactions of this present life There were none of them that studied to make any purchases in this world to lay to their earthly house They had no designs to grow rich and great to provide themselves with fair estates or to raise themselves a Name and a praise among men They did not follow the pleasures of this world nor contrived how their body might enjoy its ease and take its fill of sensual delights No though they wrought Miracles with a word of their mouth they never employed any of them for their temporal gain and advantage Silver and Gold they had none though they were inriched with all the gifts of the Holy Ghost They healed all manner of Diseases but received nothing for the Cure They spoke with Tongues taught Mysteries instructed men in heavenly knowledge but freely they received and freely they gave to all their Disciples None of them sought to advance himself to the degree of a Noble man or a Ruler of this world None of them laboured so much as to settle himself in a competent Estate but they went up and down as their Master did and had no certain dwelling-place They sought only for this building of God which is above the inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us This was all the possessions that they aimed at They had nothing in their thoughts but to go to Jesus and to carry others along with them to those coelestial Mansions where he is A great token of the sincerity of their belief a manifest demonstration that they thought themselves sure of what they preached For otherwise they would not have been so foolish and unthrifty as not to have made some present temporal benefit of that great knowledge and power wherewith they were endowed IV. But more than this they were so sure of this building of God in the Heavens that they endured all sorts of miseries and pains in this life meerly in hopes and expectations of it So St. Paul tells us as I noted before in the fore-going Chapter and gives us a more particular account of his sufferings whereby he approved himself a Minister of God Chap. 6. 4 5 8 9 10. and afterward a larger Catalogue of them Chap. 11. 23 24 25 26 27. Which when you have read you will not doubt but that they knew whom they had trusted as he speaks in another place 2 Tim. 1. 12. and were perswaded that he was able to keep that which they had committed unto him against that day They exposed this house I mean this Body wherein they were to all the injuries and violence of an angry world They regarded not what breaches were made in it by cruel hands They suffered it to be rifled and spoiled of all its goods They let it be ripped up and laid bare that men might see into the sincerity of their hearts in this belief Nay they cared not though it were pulled down and laid even with the ground They let fire be set to it and contentedly saw it turn'd to ashes Which they could never have consented unto if they had not been assured of a better habitation a building of God eternal in the Heavens Were they think you the only fools who knew not what was good for themselves Were men of so great knowledge can you imagine destitute of so much Wit as not to understand the value of life Were they so grosly ignorant as not to know that pleasure is better than pain And a poor house better than none at all What should make them then forsake the common sense of mankind who by all means labour to preserve life and seek to maintain the comforts and enjoyments of it unless it were this belief which I speak of that they should gain a more happy life by leaving this and make an exchange of a mean and contemptible dwelling for one more honourable and glorious It was not a fancy that could prevail with such wise men as they appeared against sense and bodily feeling Though fools may carelesly throw themselves into dangers yet we cannot conceive how men of such divine reason could support themselves by meer imagination under so many dreadful sufferings We must rather conclude that it was the presence and real possession of some great good infinitely surpassing all others which made them quit so easily that which others hold so fast and endure so constantly that which others so solicitously labour to avoid And it is considerable that they not only suffered all the torments the world could inflict but under-went them with great patience and admirable quiet of mind Nay they endured not only with patience but with joy nay counted it all joy when they fell into divers tryals And more than this they gloried in tribulations nay esteemed it as a gift on the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but to suffer also for his sake As if they had looked on their sufferings with the same eye that they did on their coelestial habitations which they made account were a gift a grace and favour of God to them Nor was there any of them otherwise minded but they all departed from the presence of the Council where they had been beaten rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name Acts 5. 41. and as St. Paul testifies of himself none of these things moved them neither counted they their lives dear unto themselves so that they might finish their course with joy Acts 20. 24. There was not one of them that shrank back when his life was in danger and would not leave his possessions here which we may well think would have hapned if they had not verily believed as they spake Some or other of them would have discovered the fraud if they had gone about to abuse the world A Rack would have made them speak the truth a Gibbet the Fire or some other torture would have drawn from them another confession if they could have said any thing but this that the crucified Jesus was alive again and was gone to Heaven and lived for evermore and had all power in Heaven and Earth and would receive their Spirits and raise their dead bodies that they might live and reign for ever with him in the high and holy place where he is But in this they all agreed to lay down their lives and suffer themselves to be cast out of their present dwellings which was a sign they had good security given them of enjoying everlasting habitations as our Saviour calls them Luke 16. 9. which no power on earth can touch And that brings me to the last thing the Apostle took his security to be so unquestionable that he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have a building of God V. They were so sure of this that it seemed to them as if